One step forward, two steps back

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“One step forward, two steps back” is the fortieth video in the Everyman HYBRID series. Jeff and Vince dig up more information about Dr. Corenthal at the Hamilton Public Library, another lead fails to pan out, and the Rake strikes again.

Contents

[Jeff is leaning over his computer with 'Hamilton Public Library' on Google maps]

Vince: Alright, got it, umm, so basically guys we found what that serial number was for at the bottom of the -- the microfilm canister. Traced it back...

Jeff: Apparently what it was...

Vince: Yeah, well, we later found out that's what it was. But, umm, it lead us to the Hamilton Township Library, uh, which I called someone there, I uh, I got a hold of some girl called Lexa or Lexi or something along tha- those lines and she basically went to th--

[A door slams in the background and footsteps can be heard approaching]

Alex: Hey guys.

Vince: Hey Alex, we're just explaining something real quick. Uh, she basically told us they transferred the microfilms over to computer a while back, and we'd have to go talk to the head sec- uh... head librarian. We'll go do that now, and see what we can find.

Jeff: You wanna go with us?

[Jeff points the camera at Alex]

Alex: To the library?

Jeff: Yeah, we got some stuff with that box--

Vince: The police, yeah--

Jeff: --all that stuff we got from the... from the... from that room.

Vince: --we're gonna check it out.

Alex: Alright, let me ask Mom real quick.

Jeff: Alex...

Vince: Jeff...

Jeff: You don't got...

Vince: Jeff, it's been months since they've been gone--

Jeff: I know, man.

Vince: --it's not natural, this isn't the grieving process.

Jeff: I'll talk to his doctor soon, or something, I dunno man.

[A clattering can be heard in the background and Alex re-appears with a portable stereo]

Vince: He's got school tomorrow and he thought it was his bedtime? He's losing it!

Jeff: He's confused. Now lets go.

[Cut to a sign showing 'Free Public Library Township of Hamilton' The clip has no sound and pans across to a footpath. The clip cuts to Jeff and Vince walking towards the library. Audio returns as Jeff is viewing outside the library with his camera, looking at brightly coloured houses.]

Jeff: Well I get to play the wait- while Vinny goes and talks to the girl behind the desk...

[Vince appears from behind a bookcase]

Vince: Hey...

Jeff: Do you remember Safety Town?

Vince: Oh man, it's never looked so ominous-

Jeff: Yeah, right? It's about to rain.

Vince: Alright, well are you, uh... ready to go?

Jeff: What do you look so happy about?

Vince:[He grins.] I got her number.

Jeff: Oh, spare me. [Vince laughs softly.] Eh, whatever.

[The two start walking the way Vince appeared from]

Vince: [unintelligible]

Jeff: She knows what we're talking about?

Vince: Yeah, so...

Jeff: Great.

[Cut to Jeff leaning over a computer, Vince is on camera]

Jeff: Alright, yeah, we gotta go up to the other rooms for it.

Vince: 'Kay...

Jeff: But um, everything Lexi said was here, is here. So just, we got the notebook, I'll transcribe them, and--

Vince: Awesome, uh --

Jeff: I'll type them up at home.

Vince: Also while you're here, could you look up the Pocono...the Pocono Pines--

Jeff: Okay--

Vince: --police--

Jeff: I'll put that on my phone--

Vince: Just so that we can -- yeah, I wanted to check out, what was his name, Officer Matten. I wanna see if we can get a hold of him.

[Scene cuts to Jeff and Vince leaving the library, Jeff is now back on camera.]

Vince: Alright so I think we got all we can possibly get out of there, did you transcribe anything useful?

Jeff: A couple weird articles about the Doctor and weird stuff goin' down, I'll show you it later.

Vince: Alright, just remember we can't use the footage of the librarian or Lexi, because the head librarian said she didn't want her staff filmed.

Jeff: Alright.

Vince: So just make sure we stay away from that, because I don't want to get her pissed off at us, she seemed like a helpful resource--

Jeff: Get the Hamilton SWAT on us?

[Cut to Jeff and Vince in the car on a deserted piece of highway. Vince is on camera and Jeff in on the phone]

Vince: Alright, so right now, we are in the car. We just got the number for the Mount Pocono Police Department and Jeff's giving them a ring to see if he can't talk to Officer 'Matten' was it?

Jeff: Matten.

Vince: Or at least find out where he is or where we can contact him, so if he ever gets an answer. We'll record it just for the sake of recording it. Got it?

Jeff: Oh, it's ringing... Hi, my name's Jeff, um, I'm looking for a -- if there's forwarding information or a -- a some sort of address I could contact for an Officer Matten? My father was a family friend of Matten's and he just -- I'm trying to find him. [pause] Alright, okay. Thank you. They're forwarding me, it's some new guy.

Vince: As horrible as it sounds, why does it seem like all of our leads --

Jeff: They're just dead? Or dying?

Vince: Ah, fuck!

[Cut to Evan holding the camera at Jeff's kitchen table. It is night.]

Evan: [in a Scottish accent] Alrighty! [A Scrabble game is on-going in front of him.]

Evan: Uh, is it your turn or my turn?

Alex: Your turn.

Evan: "N"... [he fumbles with the camera and places his pieces of the board.] Done.

Alex: "Wifin" isn't a word!

Evan: "Wifin" is a word!

Jeff: "Wife" is a word.

Evan: It's a, it's a verb, like--

Alex: How does one "wifin?"

Evan: --well one really shouldn't wifin'. One should really stay away from wifin'ing.

[Cut to Evan looking at papers with the camera before switching the focus to Jeff, who is sitting next to him.]

Jeff: -- the articles transcribed.

Evan: What?

Jeff: Got the articles typed up. I mean I can't get into our MediaFire account, for whatever reason, it says something about a password change.

Evan: So what is this?

Jeff: But we can put it up as a Google document, this is the stuff we got from the library about the Doctor-

Evan: Oh yeah, I forgot you guys were doing that today-

Jeff: It's just an article from '84 that runs up to, and there's another one that goes to 2005, and most of them are AP articles, some are Trenton articles... There's -- he was -- the last article was when he was at the park we were at, at Baldpate? There's a lot of stuff involving him running away from police questioning, sketchy stuff with patients...

Evan: Huh...

Jeff: I don't know man.

Evan: Well that's disturbing...

Jeff: I'll get this up for them so they can see it.

Evan: Alright cool.

Jeff: I mean, It's like...there's some articles about him fleeing and then others he's being honoured as a -- a guest, in Hamilton too! I don't know what the hell to think about this guy.

Evan: I dunno if you guys, our fans, saw but uh, this thing was rick-tick-tickiting, while uh, you know that certain incident occured in the certain storage facility. So, I dunno, this thing seems to be doing something.

Jeff: What's Alex doing?

[Evan turns the camera to face Alex, who is standing by the porch door looking out]

Evan: You okay over there big guy?

[Alex turns]

Alex: It's back.

Evan: What do you mean -- what do you mean it's back? What do you mean?

[Alex immediately runs from the door towards the corridor behind him, Evan, and Jeff get up to follow]

[Evan rushes to restrain Alex who is trying to get into the tool shed]

Jeff: Sparky! [At first he begins to follow, but stays on the porch to get a better view of the shed through the camera.] What's going on? You want me to get something?

[Evan's voice is faint as he and Alex investigate the shed. Alex runs for the door and starts to open it.]

Evan: Alex, get back -- [he struggles with Alex, trying to keep him from entering the shed.] -- nope, nope, nope! [He pulls Alex back by his collar.] Nope, nope...

[Cut to Jeff running down the porch steps and making a beeline for the shed. Evan is speaking to Alex as he leans into the tool shed; his words are mostly unintelligible.]

Evan: -- calm down, alright?

Jeff: What the hell's going on?

Evan: Stay here! [to Alex] You stay here--

Jeff: She in there?

Evan: I don't see anything, but I think I see Sparky, so just calm down and back off, I got it.

[Cut to Evan leaning into the toolshed]

Evan: -- it's in here Alex.

Jeff: You see Sparky?

Evan: C'mon Sparky, come on girl!

Jeff: Come on girl!

Evan: You alright? [He is suddenly pulled half-way into the tool shed as a high-pitched whining growl begins to sound, and struggles frantically.] Oh shit, Jesus!

[Evan is dragged into the shed and he struggles with The Rake. The whine increases to demonic growls and shrieks as Evan drags himself away from the shed, staggering in pain and shock.]

Evan: Ah, fuck!

[His arm is covered in deep gouges oozing blood. The noises continue as Jeff and Alex rush forward and struggle to slam the door shut. The noises sound like a woman screaming, or a small animal being tortured.]

[Cut to Evan in Jeff's bathroom cleaning up the bloody, gaping wounds in his arm with a paper towel and a small trickle of water from the tub.]

Jeff: You alright, man?

Evan: Yeah, let's uh... [he turns to the camera] Did you g- did you see this? You see what happened to me? Look at this!

[He holds up his arm for inspection, which has several long bloody scratches in groups of three all over his forearm and a little past his elbow.]

Jeff: Shit, dude...

Evan: I don't think Sparky did that! [He goes back cleaning his arm.] There sure as shit is not any --

Jeff: I don't think Sparky made it, man.

[Evan purses his mouth and gives Jeff a long look over his shoulder before turning back to wiping the blood off his arm.]

Evan: Whatever was in there...

Jeff: Well, we know what was in there.

Evan: ...I think it was holding her like a... like a -- like a fuckin' fishing lure, man, because she wasn't making any noise and she was moving around a little bit -- [he makes a wiggling movement with his head] -- you know what I mean? [he turns back to his arm] But I don't think it was her moving or anything. You know?

The song playing in the car is "Eli, the Barrow Boy" by the Decemberists.

Though clearly Evan suffers for it, it doesn't seem like he was the target of this attack (presumably by The Rake) as the bait laid out was Sparky, Alex's dog. (Alex being a past victim of The Rake.)

It seems that their MediaFire account has been hacked by some outside source.

"Safety Town" is a program held by many local police organizations that replicates a town in child sized buildings so that the children can be taught traffic rules, street crossings, etc. in the safety of a secure setting.

Following this video, HABIT tweeted: "HA - IT APPEARS THAT BOTH OF THE BROTHERS KNOW A DEAD BITCH.", clearly referencing Sparky and possibly referencing Jessa.

"Wifin" is a reference to the song "20 Dollars" by American rap artist Ron Browz, which is also a fan-originated meme about Slenderman.

In this entry The Rake's voice appears much more high-pitched and distressed. This could be due to the interaction of Evan attacking it, or maybe it was Sparky making the noises. The Rake also does not speak any words in this clip, unlike some of its previous appearances.

Evan says the black box device was 'rick-tick-ticketing' when Slenderman was present. The phrase 'Rick-Tick-Tick Goes the Man in the Woods' was carved on the exterior of Box 1.

It was off screen during the events of this video that Evan discovered that the Black Box Device reacted to the Sigma Radiation in his blood. This was relayed in the video "Sigma."